Adding text using global update [was: call number prefix]

["Jackson, Richard" <rjackson@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Thank you, Elizabeth, for sharing this.  I almost missed your second
paragraph.

I had thought that it was impossible to append text to the end of a variable
tag using global update.  That opinion seemed to be shared by others I
talked to at IUG, including III staff, and an enhancement requesting this
was the second highest vote getter last year for Cataloging/Database
Maintenance.  Yet when I tried your method -- replacing nothing with the
text you want to append -- it worked great, not just for call numbers but
for any variable field.  I'm just sorry I didn't know about it sooner.
Thanks again.

Richard V. Jackson
Catalog Librarian / Database Manager
Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens
1151 Oxford Rd., San Marino, Calif. 91108
(626) 405-2100 x2384   rjackson@xxxxxxxxxx


 -----Original Message-----
From: 	Elizabeth Thomsen [mailto:et@xxxxxxxxxx] 
Sent:	Friday, April 25, 2003 3:20 PM
To:	Innopac
Subject:	Re: call number prefix

I'm assuming that your call numbers are MARC fields.  If so, it's easy to 
add something to the beginning of the field using global update.  Just 
search and replace |a with |aGen, or replace |a with |kGen|a if you want 
the prefix to be in a separate subfield.  (Subfield k is a call number 
subfield in our system, your may be configured differently.

It's also possible to add something to the end of a variable field.  Use 
change variable field, specify the call number field, and don't put in any 
data to replace.  In the replace line, put the suffix you want to add.  In 
other words, you want to search for nothing and replace it with (Genealogy 
Room) or whatever you want added to the end of the call numbers.  I don't 
know why this works, but the system seems to decide that since it can't 
find "nothing" it might as well just stick the data at the end of the 
existing field.

I am writing this from the IUG, from memory, without access to Millennium, 
and I'm explaining it badly, so please test out that second one on your 
own system on a file of a few records to make sure it works.  (Preview 
will show you what it's doing anyway.)  It works for us, anyway.